A review by ineffablebob
The Virtu by Sarah Monette

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

The Virtu reads to me like the second half of the first Doctrine of Labyrinths book, Mélusine. You'd expect a sequel to pick up threads from the prior book, of course, but in this case it's almost the mirror image. Characters, places, plot points from the first book are revisited again and again, almost like retracing steps of a journey in reverse. There's only one significant new character, and even she is a reflection of someone in the first book. None of this should be read as a criticism - I enjoyed this one even more than the first, but it does mean that once the general trajectory became clear, there wasn't much in the way of surprises. Didn't matter to me, as the characters are so interesting that knowing where the plot was going didn't matter much. My one actual criticism is that I felt that the climatic ending conflict was won too easily, almost by accident. But that's not enough to seriously detract from my enjoyment - highly recommended to anyone who liked the first one.